Billy Ray Cyrus’ Inaugural Ball Performance Cut Short: What Really Happened?
on Jan 21, 2025
Billy Ray Cyrus’ Inauguration Ball Performance Leaves Fans With Questions
Billy Ray Cyrus is known to the younger generation as the father of Hannah Montana. However, country music fans recognize him as the artist who still holds the record for the best-selling debut album of all time for a solo male artist.
Despite his achievements, he experienced a challenging night at Donald Trump’s Liberty Ball.
Billy Ray Cyrus has been a performer for most of his life, gaining critical acclaim at a young age. He has received multiple Grammy awards, and his first single, “Achy Breaky Heart,” achieved triple platinum status.
Most recently, his feature on Lil Nas X’s remix of “Old Town Road” spent 19 consecutive weeks at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100.
RELATED: Carrie Underwood Leads Packed Capitol Rotunda In Memorable Patriotic Performance
Billy Ray Cyrus’ Inaugural Ball Performance
The singer walked out on stage as the official video of “Old Town Road” pictured above played behind him. He stood at the head of the stage and strummed his guitar, sang along with the music video, and interacted with the crowd.
The video was around five minutes long and the entirety of his performance was only about 10 minutes.
After the video ended Cyrus began to strum his guitar and whistle to the tune of “Old Town Road” thinking that the crowd had not yet gotten enough of the hit single. He said shortly after that:
“If you encourage me, I’ll keep going. They told me to kill as much time as possible.”
His guitar cut out.
He responded by saying:
“Is anybody awake? Where’s everybody at? Is anyone back there? Can somebody turn my guitar back on?”
That’s when someone came out on stage to help him get his guitar working.
However, given that a band did not come out on stage and his guitar was never turned back on, many fans are assuming that Cyrus’ performance was intentionally cut short, with some even insinuating that he might have been drunk or high.
Some are saying that his perf was terrible and he was drunk or high or both. I think that’s why Jason Aldean is performing a whole concert because he had to fill the time since Billy Ray was basically kicked off.
— ƧӇƠƇƘƧ_ƧƧ ⚖️ (@NOTW1221) January 21, 2025
Did we just witness Billy Ray’s farewell performance? pic.twitter.com/ZHaX3QdjLa
RELATED: Country Stars React After Donald Trump Wins The Presidential Election
Billy Ray Cyrus Assumed He Was Having Technical Difficulties Similar To Carrie Underwood
After realizing his guitar would not be turned back on, he took the opportunity to mention that Carrie Underwood had also experienced technical difficulties during the inauguration ceremony.
Underwood took the opportunity to sing an a cappella version that moved fans and the inauguration crowd alike.
Cyrus said “Wasn’t Carrie Underwood fabulous? They had technical difficulties too. And in life, when you have technical difficulties, you just gotta keep going. Or as President Trump would say, ‘You gotta fight!
He continued performing on stage, singing an a cappella version of his 1992 hit “Achy Breaky Heart.”
However, his voice was clearly raspy, leading fans to speculate about what might have happened during the iconic singer’s performance.
You can see his full performance at the Liberty Ball below.
